As Heidi crawled out of the totaled car and walked to Kimsung and her brother, the controlled animals returned, confirming Kimsung's worry that the monster controlling them was still alive.
"Heidi! Get over here now!" Kimsung yelled, and she did as told, obviously not wanting to die. The trio began to run from the swarm of animals, much smaller than before, but still posing a threat to the group.
"Where should we go?" Keido asked as they ran to the Bethesda Fountain next to the lake. Perhaps they could hide in the bathrooms, but that was a temporary solution, as the animals could force their way in and kill all three of them quickly. There weren't any other methods of transportation, regrettably, and Keido swore he saw some horses as a part of the group chasing them.
The controlled horses galloped to them, catching up to them quickly, and would've crushed Keido and Heidi with their hooves had Kimsung not pushed them out of the way. The two rolled out of harm's way as Kimsung led them away before he began to fight them.
"Kimsung! Heidi, go hide in the bathrooms and wait for us, ok?" Keido quickly said before going to assist Kimsung.
She ran quickly down the path to the Bethesda Terrace and had just passed the fountain when a large monster covered in mud and algae emerged from the water with a roar.
"Oh crap!" Heidi screamed as she ran faster, even though she was already tired. She ran under the Bethesda terrace as the algae and mud-covered monster the size of a regular car chased after her, destroying the sculptured fountain in its path.
She ran with all her strength to the cover of the terrace and saw a lioness' corpse. Perhaps it was one of the three that had fought with the monster earlier, but now it was in the corner of that cover, its body in a similar state to the wolf and the previously surviving lioness, with impalement wounds all over. Heidi had just reached the stairs as the monster closed in on her, its large limbs carrying it forward at a fast speed.
She began to run up the stairs and was so close to the bathrooms when she fell, tripping on the stone stairs and landing on the floor. She looked back, like any horror movie character would, and saw the mud monster closing in on her, just about to bite her in half, when it was stabbed on the right side of its body, then the left side.
The monster was stopped completely in its tracks and struggled to break free from whatever was holding it down. As she looked closer, she could see two translucent spears the size of lampposts impaling its large body fully through, even digging deep into the stairs.
The monster did everything it could to break free, but the next moment, a spear of a similar size to the ones trapping it came down on its head, killing it.
"Fucking finally. Piece of shit kept hiding in the water like a bitch. Thanks for baiting him, by the way." A voice spoke behind Heidi, his tone clearly annoyed at the strange monster. She looked back, her eyes widening as she saw a certain man at the top of the steps.
"You're…"
With Keido and Kimsung, a second after the monster died, its control over the animals stopped, all of them ceasing their movement before breaking into a panic, running away, or staying to attack Keido and Kimsung. The two were confused, but they didn't miss the opportunity to run away.
"Where'd she go, to the bathrooms?" Asked Kimsung, putting away his sword.
"Yeah, I told her to wait for us, but why did those animals stop attacking us?" Keido asked as they ran, only to see not Heidi, but a certain man walking out from under the terrace.
"Hey, Kimchis! Is the bitch back there one of yours?" He asked.
Kimsung stopped, recognizing the man as Achilles, his killer in the last reset, walking to them in a relaxed manner. Keido, however, saw the blood on Achilles' clothes and promptly ran up to him before knocking him to the ground.
"Where is she? Did you hurt her?" He asked him in a concerned tone. The man wore a green trench coat, with black dress pants, a white button-up tee, and clearly worn brown boots above his ankles. He calmly put his hands in his pockets before speaking.
"Just where are you looking?" He asked in an amused tone as Heidi walked out from under the terrace with a translucent collar around her neck.
"Call it insurance. You're the first people I met, and I'm shit at human interaction, so I gotta have something to keep you two at a distance, you get it?" He explained calmly, sitting down on the fountain barrier.
"So, since she's got a nice little collar around her neck that could slice it open if I think about it, let's have a nice talk before killing each other." He spoke in a calm tone, as if he wasn't threatening somebody's life at the moment.
Kimsung, who had summoned his sword out of reflex, put it back in his inventory, and Keido did the same, sitting down near Achilles. To be honest, Keido and Heidi were extremely relieved to have met with Achilles here, because it meant they wouldn't have to search for him and spend a lot of time.
"So… you guys are the three Kimchis I saw at 86th a while ago, right?" He asked, taking out a ginger ale soda from his inventory and popping it open.
Keido nodded, but was a bit confused as to why they were being referred to as "Kimchis".
"Yes, we are, but why're you calling us 'Kimchis', exactly?" He asked, wondering about it himself. Kimsung actually already knew the answer, having just remembered seconds ago. For some reason, many of his memories were missing, and a few would return at random. But from his memories, he was speaking with Jamal one time, and the man had told him one thing that was important to know. Achilles was actually racist.
But not in an entirely negative way. Jamal explained it was his way of fitting in with people, since the man's communication skills weren't fully developed, and had a deep yearning to be a part of a group, thus he learned how to be racist.
Honestly, it would be offensive if it weren't for the fact that Achilles had noticed they were Korean almost immediately. Clearly, he could at least tell the difference between Asians. As he was thinking this, Achilles and Keido continued their conversation.
"Oh, you guys are Korean, right? Well, I couldn't think of anything more memorable, besides K-pop and boy bands, except for Kimchi. So I thought, hey, why not just call them that, because I clearly fucking don't know your names, dumbass." He explained curtly, devoid of any nicety, remaining Kimsung of Achilles' supposed "Water Version" and how he spoke.
"Anyways, my name is…" He paused, looking down at the ground for a moment, before responding: "My name is Achilles. Achilles of America, because I refuse to use my last name, and Yehoshua was cool for his 'Of Nazareth' thing." He said with a smile.